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Creating templates/websites for people

Please forgive my ignorance. I was wondering how much I could create/sell website designs for. Now a days it seems there are loads of free designs online. Granted they all look stale and boring, but with such a contrast, is there a high paying market for website design?

I was wondering if anyone has any reading material that's not full of too much garbage that I could dwell into so I could understand what is a respectable standard for customers when it comes to coding a website for them. Sorta just trying to find the grounding for this as I can create designs, but when it comes to coding, im a bit hazy on what is acceptable and what is not up to par.

True. Thanks for responding, I know I kinda posted an extremely general question.

I'm sorta meaning from the ground up. I consider my designs to be unique and of decent quality, but coding on the other hand I have a very rough understanding of what is acceptable and what is not.

I've seen some extremely plain websites being posted and "sold" which sorta baffles me. Is the majority of the pricing related to the coding of the website or is it a balance between design and the coding itself?

The price has almost nothing to do with the coding standards and good practices.

You are talking about people who have little to no understanding of coding and need to buy one.
The design doesn't even have to work in all browsers, the buyers would not know.

In all cases, the price of website designs will be forever decreasing as more and more enter the competitive market.

As an ending note, if your designs aren't top notch, they are not going to sell, there are just too many designs on the market and a limited number of customers. You will be unable to beat the top wholesellers of templates, so you will have to sell the designs to them and take a royalty check. Whether they sell or not, depends on whether the design is good.

Users who have thanked Sammy12 for this post:

Sorta yes, but I have to sorta rectify their ignorance with a knowledge base so they're not being taken advantage of :S. If I'm going to charge someone for a website, I want them to get the best possible website they can at a fair price.
Having it work cross browser, being seo optimised is part of the standard, there's no work around on that one.

I'm meaning design+coding I guess.

*edit*
Hmm... I suppose that's true. Sorta discouraging in it's own. I do believe alot of websites now a days have a repetitive feeling to them, yet they sell for odd amounts of money. It's sorta baffeling.

How do you mean?
To me I think they're cheap easy way to make money. Quick ways to get your company or personal website online, but with little to no custimization. They do work I suppose, but as far as .. anything forward moving it's devoid of that.

@7Blake I'm trying not to dilute my post count, but if you want to go somewhere with templates, you have the right idea. It's all about the domain name and your rank in Google if you choose to create a custom website. Honestly not an easy thing, it's not whether your designs are better, it's whether you can beat their domain name.

Users who have thanked Sammy12 for this post:

See that's the thing. The main competition is a $50/£50 template website. More or less the only way I can see of getting anywhere is to create a custom website/coded and sell it for the same price and use that as a contrast to breaking away from the fold.

Seems like a nightmare almost to be honest. I can understand though a need to make and have templates, though they should be kept up to a standard. It's sorta why I'm curious as to what the standards are in thefield now a days. It's seems all over the place almost.

*edit*
so how do entry web designers survive in this market? I sorta have to build my portfolio up, and as far as my coding experience goes I'm poxed on it atm. So no company will hire me.. which is fair. Just means I have to learn coding again, but.

*edit2 *

Oh heh good call on the post quality. Perhaps... this might seem like a odd question, but do you have any examples of a decently designed website that I could view? Obviously I know some myself, but not on selling point understanding. I think the only way I'll be able to create a decent portfolio is to understand what is mainstream so I don't create things that are old news or common.

Hmm, see the only thing I can think of is actually having to go out there and find clients in the beginning. Offering people something unique in design at an afforable price. But it's defiantly not just about the design, it's about all the web applications/user abilities. I'm still a bit miffed on getting a website SEO'd.

The website industry is very competitive. Programmers from other countries are willing to undercut you at any price as their standard of living and wealth is much lower. They live as kings in their country for $6/hour.

If you are not already very good at design and coding, you are going to need to build your skills. Generally to start your portfolio you could offer a website that was poorly made to be redone for free with a link to your "design company/portfolio" and you build from there. If your website was good, people who visit the site may like the design and hire you.

As for building templates, it's not impossible, I don't mean to discourage you, but you would need a lot of knowledge in SEO. So many good designs are never seen because of lack in SEO/good domain. And once you get in the top 10 on google, your designs and custom website would have to be spectacular.http://support.google.com/webmasters...n&answer=35291

I feel like I have to add something here. First of all, the designers of the $50 templates from templatemonster live by the mass. If a $50 template is sold ten times in a month they’ve made 500 bucks. And if they have created ten templates and each is selling twice a month then that’s a thousand bucks. However, that’s not the entire web design industry, it’s merely one niche (and a bad one, I might say, as it devalues the work). There is still a vast amount of potential clients that actually hire web designers/developers to create custom websites for them that are designed especially for their specific needs. That’s something a stock template can’t match.

Now, as to getting into the industry, yes, the beginning is always the hardest part. You need to get active and do some acqusition. And yes, for this you need a portfolio which you have to build at first. And you need to start with your very own portfolio website. Good presentation is half the business. Then the best way to actually get started is not to create some meaningless stock templates but to do some work of actual value, like doing some pro-bono work designing a website for a local non-profit organization or the association of which you are a member, or for your friend’s parents’ small business for a fairly low budget, or something like this. If you’re actually good then people will recommend you and/or you can use these projects to apply for more serious and higher paying jobs.

I myself started a few years ago not know coding thus not being able to design my own website as many thousands out there everyday.

Finding a website template/designer is the most easiest thing online today wheather it be free or having to pay. I myself have lost a few hundred on different templates thinking that they where better than free ones BUT as I eventually found out paying for a website template is not the main issue as many would do so thinking the same thing as me.

SO what is the main problem with templates online?

It is expect and trusting that you will get support or be able to find a developer which will help you build your website from that template that you either got for fre or paid for (no matter which).

The first thing a new developer is going to tell you is get rid of that crap I will start a new one from scratch. So there you have lost money already on buying a template.

Then there those that sell templates who do custom designs; They charge a fortune and are I found very unreliabe as I have been cheated by many of them not completing the work one they get paid.

HOW to solve this in my point of view!

Be a trusted designer who can design and code websites from start to finish expecting and understanding that every new user doesn't know coding so they are relying on you 100%. This is where the biggest issue is finding a trusted developer.

NO Offence to you but as you have clearly stated you do not do programming so what you are attempting to do is sell something with no backup what so ever once sold as you cannot expand on what you offer.
My suggestion is get yourself together with a programmer first and work together as a team so that when you actually do sell a template you can also offer the rest of the package which is building the actually workings of the website.

Be true to your support and be there when they need help. If you can deliver a full package then you will with no dout just become like many others and ignored.

Remember there are millions of templates online. there are only a few trustworthy developers online and I haven't found one yet.

I stumbled across your site because I was viewing someone elses site in the same field I am getting into and found they used you for their site. I have the beginning of my site started but can’t finish it because I could not find anymore tutorials for linking the pages and making them work and completing content. Should I try to find this information through Word Press or some other information portal? Thank you for the great start and I hope to be able to finish and have my site up soon.

My 2 cents...
Over the years I've downloaded hundreds of free templates mostly written using table layouts which are a pain to modify. Also most templates are not actually designed to handle database entries like one may expect. They're visual presentations that someone thought might work. There is also alot more to developing a website than a template, there's forms, listings, multiple document pages, varying menu systems and admin areas which could be developed.

Do you have any templates available? Or anything people can check out? If so, show me. I might be able to help, but oyu also need to know more coding than just html & css. You'll need to know javascript, jQuery basics to start.

Anyway let me know, I need to train a template designer in my style of coding for future project. Most important is that you have a passion to design websites, without it you won't be much use. Just another that wants to be paid for every lil' thing or change.